Cowboy Eggs Benedict at Hotel Cerro in San Luis Obispo, California by Ruth Paget

Cowboy Eggs Benedict at Hotel Cerro in San Luis Obispo, California by Ruth Paget 

The Hotel Cerro in San Luis Obispo, California does not offer complimentary breakfast. Instead, the hotel has an informal café where you can order small or large breakfast at a counter and pay according to what you order. 

Servers will bring items to your table and clear dishes.

I liked this arrangement, because I like large, warm American breakfasts when I travel. Laurent, on the other hand, prefers lighter fare like croissants, yogurt, and orange juice. Hotel Cerro can deliver both at the same time with Swiss aplomb. 

I ordered a twist on traditional Eggs Benedict called Cowboy Eggs Benedict. The twist in this dish is using a thick, black peppery sausage patty in place of Canadian bacon in this tasty breakfast sandwich. 

Aside from the sausage patty, the eggs Benedict was made the traditional way on a split, toasted English muffin with the sausage topped with a poached egg and lemony Hollandaise sauce. 

The Cowboy Eggs Benedict came with a generous helping of oven-baked, small new potatoes in their skins that were seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper. I dunked these in spicy Cholula sauce. 

I sipped American diner coffee with cream as I ate and liked the Western spin on the Eggs Benedict. 

The day I ate this breakfast it was rainy and cold, making the food especially flavorful. 

I like the breakfast dining arrangement at Hotel Cerro in San Luis Obispo, California and thought the food was fresh and the service was quick. For a good breakfast before setting out touring or driving home, it was perfect. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Morro Bay Oysters and Dungeness Crab Salad at Tognazzini's Dockside Restaurant in Morro Bay, California by Ruth Paget

Raw Oysters and Dungeness Crab Salad at Tognazzini’s Dockside Restaurant in Morro Bay, California by Ruth Paget 

On our family mini recharge trip to San Luis Obispo, California, we returned to Salinas via a side trip to Morro Bay for lunch at Tognazzini’s Dockside Restaurant. (The Tognazzini’s also run a fishing company located on the dock outside the restaurant.) 

My husband Laurent, daughter Florence Paget, and I began our meal with six raw Morro Bay oysters. I squirted lemon juice on mine and ate a few with cocktail sauce and creamy, grated horseradish. I love cold, briny raw oysters, but recognize that not everyone likes them despite the quality. For me, however, our New Year’s Eve meal was off to a great start despite the rainy, cold weather. 

While we were eating, Tognazzini’s fishermen were hauling in 4-feet flatfish and weighing them outside our window on the dock as mealtime entertainment. Tognazzini prides itself on boat-to-table cuisine. They even claim they can provide the boat name and captain’s name for your fish order. 

As our main dish, Laurent and I ordered the Mariner Salad that you can add a variety of fish and seafood to as protein ranging from shrimp to salmon. Laurent chose this and ordered Dungeness crab as our shellfish protein since the end of December is in Dungeness crab season. (Florence ordered the calamari and chips plate.) 

I grew up living on salads in Detroit, Michigan where I ate Greek salads in Greek town at least once a week and Cobb salads at Syros Restaurant around the corner from my apartment building about twice a month. Seafood salads were a treat I could order at Lelli’s Restaurant when I was taken there by my mother and babysitters.  I love salads in general and view seafood salads as a great treat.

The Mariner salad at Tognazzini’s features a bed of baby greens and seasonal vegetables. The seasonal vegetables for Californian winter included boiled beet slices, a neat pile of perfectly cut tomato cubes, cucumber slices, grated carrots, slices of red onions, and another neat pile of crumbled blue cheese. I ate my salad with house made blue cheese dressing and thought I had an outstanding finish to my recharge mini trip in San Luis Obispo County. 

We drove over the mountains from Morro Bay to Paso Robles and enjoyed viewing the rural landscape dotted with longhorn cattle, furry sheep, black and white goats, reddish-brown cows, and horse farms. The vineyards were empty of leaves with vines pruned back for winter. 

Back in Salinas, we ordered Gino’s mushroom and cheese artisanal pizza and drank champagne with it to ring in the New Year all refreshed from outstanding, Italian seafood meals in San Luis Obispo County. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Primo Pumpkin Risotto at Novo Restaurant in San Luis Obispo, California by Ruth Paget

Primo Pumpkin Risotto at Novo Restaurant and Lounge in San Luis Obispo, California by Ruth Paget 

For a short recharge vacation, my husband Laurent, daughter Florence Paget, and I set out from Salinas, California down Highway 101 to San Luis Obispo, California (about 2 hours away). 

We stayed at Hotel Cerro by Marriott for its center of downtown location and valet parking option. Both hotel lobby doors let to dining and shopping venues for fashion and gourmet food purchases. 

For dinner, we went out the hotel’s back door and crossed the street to arrive at Novo Restaurant, which has creekside dining, a private party cellar room, and indoor seating by a full bar with liquor bottles and chilled wine storage units going all the to the top of the walls to the ceiling. 

Novo’s walls are red brick with large, glass ball lights suspended on wars over the bar and seating area. Tubes of glass went through the diameter of the glass ball lights that glowed. The trendy and cool décor reminded me of bars in Brussels, Belgium that feature menus with the best that Europe has to offer for food and beverage including sushi fusion food. 

I was very happy with our restaurant even before we had ordered. 

We started with eclectic appetizers – the warm chèvre goat cheese board and raw ahi (tuna) nachos for a Hawaiian fusion twist. Laurent and I ordered locally brewed Firestone Walker Belgian blonde ale from Paso Robles, California to go with the appetizers. Florence ordered a Lavender Linen cocktail to sip on throughout the meal.

I like Novo’s warm chèvre board, because it features all savory items. The tray arrives with eight diagonal baguette slices that have been grilled with olive oil. Warm chèvre on warm baguette slices is luscious on a cold, rainy, winter night. 

The warm chèvre board also comes with warm, heirloom cherry tomatoes in olive oil. These tomatoes were sweet and meltingly, soft on the tongue.  The final treat on the warm chèvre cheese board is a cupful of warmed black olives that taste like they have been dressed with raspberry vinegar.  All these contrasting flavors pair well with the low-alcohol Belgian blonde ale from Firestone Walker.

The ahi nachos were for Florence, but she let me taste several cubes of perfectly cut ahi with sautéed scallions and sriracha mayonnaise on house-made crispy tortillas. The nachos tasted great with beer, too. 

For our spa dinner, we ordered some choice items – lobster gnocchi pasta for Laurent, filet mignon with mashed potatoes and sautéed carrots for Florence, and pumpkin risotto for me. 

The risotto was made with pudgy, round carnaroli rice that had absorbed chicken broth and white wine with Parmesan cheese stirred in at the end of the cooking. Sautéed cubes of baked pumpkin, slices of porcini mushrooms, strands of shiitake mushrooms, and fresh baby lettuce were mixed into the risotto. A handful of pomegranate seeds was scattered on top of the risotto. The flavor was magnificent. I ate everything. 

Laurent and Florence were equally happy with their dishes. 

For a relaxing and cozy spa meal, Novo Restaurant and Lounge in San Luis Obispo, California is certainly worth a visit to this busy college town. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Veneto Cookbook Reviewed by Ruth Paget

Veneto Reviewed by Ruth Paget 

Veneto: Recipes from a Country Kitchen by Valeria Necchio offers its readers recipes from the inland countryside region around Venice called the Veneto. 

The larger towns of the Veneto are Vicenza (famous for its gold jewelry stores), Verona (famous for Romeo and Juliet), and Padua (famous for its university and the Scrovegni Chapel decorated by Giotto). These towns are surrounded by cornfields, which are harvested to make the region’s equally famous corn meal polenta. 

The country cooking of the Veneto can easily be made in Monterey County California with produce that grows in the county and the State of California. Some of the delicious dishes made in the Veneto include: 

-polenta with wild mushrooms and grana padano cheese For this recipe, you make polenta using the stove-top method and stir in grated grana padano cheese. (Grana padano is made in the Po River Valley and is similar to Parmesan.) 

When the polenta is done, you sauté mushrooms in butter and serve them on top of the warm polenta. 

-rice and pea soup (risotto really but like a sopa seca)

Risi e bisi (rice and pea soup) is made on April 25th for the Feast of San Marco, the patron saint of Venice. A grain with a pulse like peas is considered a protein combination, which makes this more nutritious than you would think. 

-rice and pumpkin soup 

For this recipe, the pumpkin is sautéed and then cooked stove-top in liquid till the flesh disintegrates. Then, the rice is added to the pumpkin broth for cooking. 

-bigoli with duck ragù sauce 

Bigoli pasta are whole wheat pasta that are usually associated with the cooking of the Veneto. Bigoli are fresh-made and thicker than spaghetti. 

In this recipe, a rich, long-simmered duck meat and fat sauce is served over hot pasta. 

-stir-fried dandelion leaves with pancetta 

This recipe is simple and delicious once you buy dandelion leaves. The leaves are sautéed with unsmoked Italian pancetta bacon. 

This cookbook is doubly useful for its listing of pantry items and cooking utensil listed for cooking food from the Veneto region. 

Readers interested in learning more about Italian food and culture will find Veneto: Recipes from an Italian Country Kitchen by Valeria Necchio a useful reference book. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Venice: Four Seasons of Home Cooking Reviewed by Ruth Paget

Venice: Four Seasons of Home Cooking Reviewed by Ruth Paget 

Chef Russell Norman, who wrote Venice: Four Seasons of Home Cooking lived in Venice, Italy for 14 months collecting material for this travel memoir cookbook, owns the Polpo Restaurant in London, England and is the author of the Polpo cookbook as well. 

I enjoyed reading about his daily visits to Venetian markets for fish and/or seafood and produce and dashing home to prepare his treasures for lunch. 

He covers the changing market fare through the seasons, but I like 5 of his autumn recipes best, because they can easily be made with agricultural products from Monterey County California. 

These recipes include: 

-Autumn Celery Salad 

This salad is made with chopped and mixed shallots, celery stalks with their leaves, fennel bulbs, and comice pear with a dressing made of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top. 

-Roasted Red Chicogy 

This recipe calls for splitting red chicory in half and brushing it with olive oil before roasting it and seasoning it with salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese. 

-Tuna, Radicchio, and Horseradish Crostini This bracing hors d’oeuvres is a toasted slice of bread with a chopped mixture of radicchio and tuna held together with creamy horseradish on top. 

-Gnocchi with Sage and Butter

Gnocchi are what I call dumpling pasta made with flour and egg and boiled. The gnocchi are flavored with a sauce of sautéed sage and butter. 

-Grilled Polenta with Wild Mushrooms and Garlic 

This recipe calls for grilled cooked polenta bars as an ingredient. It takes about an hour to make polenta from scratch before it can cool down into bars for grilling, so be forewarned about the time to make this recipe. 

Once you have made the grilled polenta bars, this recipe is a cinch to make. The mushrooms are sautéed in olive oil with garlic with chopped parsley added at the end and then placed over the polenta bars for serving. 

Readers who like travel memoirs and cooking will find much to like in Venice: Four Seasons of Home Cooking by Norman Russell. This book also interested me in dining at his Venetian-themed Polpo Restaurant in London, England. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Smoked Norwegian Salmon and St. Germain Royale Cocktail Brunch by Ruth Paget

Parisian Vacation Brunch in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget  

For an après-Christmas brunch 2025, my husband Laurent, daughter Florence Paget, and I had St. Germain Royale cocktails with smoked Norwegian salmon.  

One of Florence’s Christmas gifts was a 400-page cocktails book, wo we had to let her practice a cocktail on us. She prepared a Veuve Clicquot cocktail with St. Germain liqueur made from flowery, white elder flowers. (Alone elder flowers have high amounts of Vitamin C, an antioxidants.)

I liked the St. Germain Royale cocktail and thought the sweet, effervescent flavor paired well with salty, Norwegian smoked salmon. 

Costco’s Kirkland brand uses farmed salmon from Norway that is smoked in the Netherlands the packaging relates. Laurent and I shared the package meant for four to six as brunch. (Florence had a taste and ate legs from a Costco rotisserie chicken.) 

The smoked salmon was tender and buttery in texture and had a delicate smoky flavor, which is what I like. I love fish in all its preparations including smoked. 

If you are someone who likes smoked fish, the Kirkland Norwegian salmon at Costco would probably be a welcome addition to your New Year’s celebration (price: approximately $24 per package). 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Authentic Monterey County California Lunch at Woody's in Monterey, California by Ruth Paget

Authentic Monterey County California Lunch at Woody’s in Monterey, California by Ruth Paget 

My husband Laurent, daughter Florence Paget, and I ate an authentic Monterey County lunch at Woody’s Bar and Restaurant at the airport the day after Christmas that was healthy and delicious. 

The three of us started our meal with iodine-rich shellfish from the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary. Florence ate chunky, clam chowder with salty oyster crackers. Laurent ate a jumbo shrimp cocktail with piquant cocktail sauce made with horseradish. I ate a plateful of lightly fried calamari with creamy tartar sauce and tangy cocktail sauce. I squeezed lemon juice on the calamari for a zingy addition of Vitamin C. 

Seafood tastes superb in rainy, cold weather like the winter of 2025. I snuggled up in my sweater and hoody jacket and thoroughly enjoyed each bite of calamari squid. 

Laurent ate one of his favorite Monterey County meals as his main dish – sand dabs fillets sautéed in lemon-butter with mashed potatoes and steamed seasonal vegetables.

Florence ate a Cobb salad that Woody’s made with organic produce from Swank Farms and Country Store. The salad also had organic chicken and bacon from San Benito County. Florence likes Woody’s house made ranch dressing. 

I ate one Woody’s large, fork-and-knife sandwiches – the mahi mahi sandwich with citrus aioli, citrus-flavored garlic mayonnaise. Mahi mahi is fished from the Pacific Ocean and is also known as dorado and dolphin fish. 

Mahi mahi is a Hawaiian term for this predatory fish. Mahi mahi eat protein-rich prey like crab and other smaller fish. The flesh of mahi mahi is firm from hunting.  

Mahi mahi’s flesh is also white and readily picks up flavors in poaching water like onion. At Woody’s, the mahi mahi seems to be poached with water, onion, and olive oil.

The fillet is placed on a toasted Palermo bun with citrus aioli and lettuce and tomato. I added salt to the fillet along with dill pickle and red onion. 

The sandwich is too slippery to eat with your hands, but very delectable when eaten in bites with a fork and knife. I understand why the mahi mahi sandwich at Woody’s is a Monterey County classic dish. 

I ate the mahi mahi sandwich with sweet potato fries. Sweet potatoes grow in parts of Monterey County with sunny, warm weather and sandy soil. I always associate orange vegetables with Vitamin A, which is good for the eyes. 

For a terrific, authentic Monterey County lunch, the seafood and salads at Woody’s Bar and Restaurant at the airport in Monterey, California is a welcoming spot for travelers and locals alike. 

Note: With pineapple aioli instead of citrus aioli, this meal could equally be Hawaiian.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France